While Fedor Emelianenko was falling victim to the much larger Antonio Silva in the opening round of Strikeforce’s heavyweight Grand Prix last weekend, cageside spectator and Strikeforce heavyweight champion Alistair Overeem might have let his mind wander to a bout in which he might enjoy the same advantage.

“It would be great if Strikeforce can do a co-promotion with UFC,” Overeem told MMA DieHards. “(Then) I could fight someone like Cain Velasquez.”

Similar to the Fedor-Silva fight, Velasquez would be the much smaller man in a fight with Overeem. But with politics and business rendering that scenario unlikely, Overeem must be content to remain the favorite to win the Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix.

For now, Overeem is concentrating on winning the Grand Prix, not thinking about lack of opponents or where else he can fight, including the UFC.

“At the moment I would say no (to the UFC) because I’m very happy with Strikeforce, but if there is nobody that wants to fight me then I will take any offer serious,” Overeem explained.

While the largest roadblock to the Grand Prix title is obviously not Velasquez, it appears to be the dangerous Fabricio Werdum, his quarterfinal opponent.

Whether the “Demolition Man” is demolishing foes in Japan or in the United States, it is nearly always an exciting fight that usually ends with Overeem’s counterpart laying on the canvas trying to figure out what happened.

Overeem’s long list of knockouts and submission wins, plus the fact that he has not lost in over three years, has earned him recognition as one of the best heavyweights in the sport. As champion of the promotion, his assessment of Fedor-Silva carries extra weight.

“Fedor fought like a lion,” Overeem said. “He gave everything to get out, but Silva was just too strong.”

A vast majority of the MMA community was counting out Silva, yet Overeem viewed the match up as almost equal.

“I wasn’t very surprised,” said Overeem. “When the fight was announced I was thinking of a 60-40 (edge) in favor of Fedor, but after seeing how confident Silva was I changed it into 50-50. Silva fought a perfect game plan and he knew what he had to do to beat Fedor.”

Even though Fedor himself mentioned thoughts of retirement after the loss, Overeem does not think this will be the end for the Russian.

“No, (Fedor’s) not done as a fighter, but these two losses will affect him for sure,” Overeem said.

Emelianenko is someone who Overeem had his eye on for a few years, but the fight never materialized and now Fedor has back-to-back losses. The Strikeforce Heavyweight Grand Prix had the potential to make this fight happen in the semifinals, which was enticing to the champion, but that is not where his focus lies.

“To be honest, Fedor’s not my priority right now,” Overeem admitted. “My priority is winning the Strikeforce Grand Prix title and my first fight is going to be Werdum. That fight is the only one on my mind. If I win I will face Silva, (and) that would be the next challenge, so thinking of a Fedor fight right now is not very smart to do because there are amazing fights waiting for me in Strikeforce.”

Werdum was the first man to finish Emelianenko, and he also holds a submission win over the “Demolition Man.” Those submission skills are something Overeem is very aware of going into this fight.

“We all know he’s a BJJ specialist,” Overeem said. “His ground game is one of the best, if not the best, in the world, so I have to be cautious for that.”

Although Overeem does not hold a belt in jiu-jitsu, he is still well-versed on the ground and says he is prepared for Werdum.

“My ground game has always been solid,” Overeem stated. “I don’t want to go as far as saying my ground game is better than his, but this is MMA. There are more things you have to keep in mind, like for example BJJ. The improvement I’m going through is an overall improvement so my ground game is better now compared to my first fight with Werdum.”

Constant improvement is something Overeem displays every time he competes, whether he is winning K-1 tournaments or challenging himself in Strikeforce. After winning the K-1 tournament in December, Overeem was hoping for a little vacation time, but that wish went relatively unfulfilled.

“I wanted some holiday time after my four fights in December,” Overeem said. “I just came back from doing a PR tour in the States promoting Strikeforce Grand Prix tournament and myself, (but) I’m going to start training again next week.

“I will train like I always do, but I will organize a training camp. I mostly have a special training camp in preparation of my fight. I’m thinking of going to Thailand to train there.”

While the K-1 champion awaits his initial bout in the Strikeforce Grand Prix, a teammate of his from Golden Glory has already competed and won his first bout in the tournament. Sergei Kharitonov dismantled Andrei Arlovski in the first round of their quarterfinal match, and Overeem is exceptionally proud of his friend.

“Kharitonov was very motivated and it showed in the fight,” said Overeem. “He was waiting for the moment to capitalize. His knockout was just brutal; what a great finish for Kharitonov.”

Fedor may be eliminated from the tournament, but Overeem admits that there is tough completion remaining.

“I think that Kharitonov and Antonio Silva showed us that they are the toughest fighters in the tournament,” Overeem said.

It was not too long ago when Overeem left Strikeforce to compete in Japan because of the lack of worthy opponents in the Strikeforce heavyweight division. Now Strikeforce has a solid stable of heavyweights and has thrown the majority of them in this tournament, which could result once again in a lack of matchups should Overeem win the tournament. However, the heavyweight champion does not anticipate that happening.

“It’s always difficult to find suitable opponents,” Overeem admitted. “But Strikeforce (has) a big pool of heavyweight fighters, so there will be no problem to find opponents. Although Fedor is out of the tournament, a superfight with him would be something that fans would like to see.”

There are a few opponents that stand before Overeem in Strikeforce, and after that we may or may not see him in the UFC.

But you never know. After all, a fight between Overeem and the UFC champ sounds exciting to just about everyone, especially the “Reem.”

Overeem is always well spoken and humble. I still dont know why he would think Cain would even care to fight him, beat some top dogs 1st and then talk about Cain cuz right now i really dont see it as any kind of superfight.

For kicks ill say if they did fight, Velasquez via TKO late 1st or early 2nd. Im not convinced in Overeems gas tank, TDD or ground game off his back and Cain would undoubtedly test all 3 things along with his heart and chin. Cain just has a magical way of pushing a pace nobody wants to deal with and making fighters fold. Overeem has been known to fold in the past and we havent truely seen him challenged in an MMA match in literally years.

I really like overeem, I have liked him since he was in pride and you have to respect the way he went into K1 and took the crown whilst already holding the strike force title.

I hope he wins the tournament and personally I would still be interested in seeing him fight Fedor, its something Fedor would need to do if he wants to prove he is still the best and would be a huge draw (biggest fight Strikeforce can stage)

I hope Big Foot vs Overeem meet also, that at overeem/fedor are the only fights in Strikeforce I really want to watch currently. I'd love Overeem to move over to UFC and fight the top guys there (more high profile, he deserves the mainstream recongnision )

hmm if overeem beats werdum, then silva and wins the fight in finals (would like to see barnett there) then i'd definetly like to see him in the UFC..i always wanted to see him fight lesnar cus they're both freaking huge but if he gets through werdum i think it wont be neccessary cus bigfoot is a f***ing beast aswell!

I do like Overeem and I one day would like to see him in The UFC, and if I am honest I see Overeem beating Velasquez

Really is that from his prominant record of being able to stop wrestlers? Oh that's right Overeem has been fighting hand picked opponents that can't take him down. As a matter of fact he's never beaten a top BJJ guy either. Werdum might lose, because his wrestling is poor. However I think it's a little early to say a guy who's never beaten a good grappler or beaten any good HWs is going to be Velasquez.

Overeem is always well spoken and humble. I still dont know why he would think Cain would even care to fight him, beat some top dogs 1st and then talk about Cain cuz right now i really dont see it as any kind of superfight.

For kicks ill say if they did fight, Velasquez via TKO late 1st or early 2nd. Im not convinced in Overeems gas tank, TDD or ground game off his back and Cain would undoubtedly test all 3 things along with his heart and chin. Cain just has a magical way of pushing a pace nobody wants to deal with and making fighters fold. Overeem has been known to fold in the past and we havent truely seen him challenged in an MMA match in literally years.

I completely disagree here. I think Reem and Cain would absolutely be billed as a superfight. There is no doubt that as an organization StrikeForce is the minor leagues compared to the UFC. But there are without question legit arguments to be made for Strikeforce's HW division being on par, and maybe even better than the UFC's. So if Overeem comes out of the tournament on top. He becomes the Strikeforce Grand Prix Champion, The Strikeforce HW Champion, and The K1 Champion. There are a lot of people who do believe Strikeforce has the superior HW division, so in the eyes of some... Cain might be the one being gifted the "superfight", not Alistair.

I completely disagree here. I think Reem and Cain would absolutely be billed as a superfight. There is no doubt that as an organization StrikeForce is the minor leagues compared to the UFC. But there are without question legit arguments to be made for Strikeforce's HW division being on par, and maybe even better than the UFC's. So if Overeem comes out of the tournament on top. He becomes the Strikeforce Grand Prix Champion, The Strikeforce HW Champion, and The K1 Champion. There are a lot of people who do believe Strikeforce has the superior HW division, so in the eyes of some... Cain might be the one being gifted the "superfight", not Alistair.

It will depend on how Overeem wins the tournament. Some unimpressive victories (like Lesnar's over Carwin or Silva's over Sonnen) and part of the hype will fade away, there will be huge base for speculation about whether he's even worth fighting UFC champion or not. I'm not even saying about what may happen to the hype if he gets submitted by Werdum. In this case, he'll need to win another K-1 GP to redeem himself and there will still be questions.